


Just a Few Case Files

by Wherearetheavacados



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), F/F, F/M, Fluff, Gay Ishimaru Kiyotaka, Lesbian Celestia Ludenberg, M/M, Sassy Fujisaki Chihiro, They/Them Pronouns for Fujisaki Chihiro, Togami Byakuya Being An Asshole, celestia and kirigiri are the most secret of lesbians, i wanted to write an au where kyoko and celestia are big gays and they solve mysteries, mondo desperately trying to act like a big bro to fujisaki, sdr 2 and v3 characters are also there, taka wanting to kiss said big bro
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-12 15:28:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28512672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wherearetheavacados/pseuds/Wherearetheavacados
Summary: Kyoko Kirigiri has finally finished her out of high school training and is now an official detective, and she obviously wants to go straight forward into some interesting mysteries. She never would've thought that her first case would give her back the people she desperately missed in her life.(A.k.a Kyoko is gay and solves cases with her friends who are also pretty gay)
Relationships: Asahina Aoi/Ogami Sakura, Fujisaki Chihiro/Kuwata Leon, Fukawa Toko & Naegi Komaru, Ishimaru Kiyotaka/Oowada Mondo, Kirigiri Kyoko/Celestia Ludenberg
Kudos: 65





	1. Let's finally talk again

**Author's Note:**

> i know that this is pretty short but i just wanted to get the basic stuff down first, im gonna add more to this and introduce the other characters (mondo, chihiro, leon, makoto and such) later on in the story, i didn't just tag them for no reason

Kyoko rummaged through her file cabinet, her fingers moving quickly to search for just the right one. Her head was filled with the basic details of the case she needed, a wooded area with very little housing surrounding it, which made the crime almost invisible until a few kids ran off into the woods and found the body. The person had been dead for a few weeks, so their body was already decently decayed. The reason she had been wanting to take this case was for a simple reason, the pure mystery of who the body belonged to and who left it there to rot. The body had shown signs of decay, yes, but that wasn’t what shielded the identity of the person. The killer had taken the time to remove things like the teeth, nails, and even drained the body of a majority of its blood. To put that much effort into something like that, whoever the killer was REALLY didn’t want the person's identity to be descovered. Her fingers grabbed a hold of a file, making sure she had the right one. ‘Case #125’ she thought in her head as she looked at the file number. Yup. This is it. 

She dug into her pocket as she closed her file cabinet, digging out her phone. She dialed a number she almost dreaded having to call, and after a few rings, he finally answered. ”Hello?” “Hello, Father. I've picked out the case I want to take.” She said after a bit of hesitation. The man on the other end of the line hummed. “And? Which case have you chosen?” He replied, sounding a bit more enthused than she expected. She let herself smile a bit, before thinking about her choices. It didn’t take her long before she finished her internal debating. “Case #125. The one in that woods in the countryside?” She could almost hear her fathers mental jumping jacks as he processed what had just come out of her mouth. He sighed, “Kiri, why can’t you pick a smaller, more, I don’t know, more solvable case? We don’t even know the victims identity.” “It’s my decision.” She was quick to reply. She knew this would happen, and she hated it. “But this is your first actual case. I don’t want you to overwhelm yourself.” 

Silence

It took a bit, but he eventually gave a simple “Fine.” and just like that, the conversation ended just as quickly as it began. 

Kyoko knew that this wasn’t gonna be easy.

And to be honest,

She liked that.

As she walked out of her office, she dialed another number, one she wasn’t so nervous about.  
It took a while for the person to pick up, but when she did, She seemed to have a decent reason.  
“Ugh, sorry Kyoko. Nagito broke one of Hiyoko’s fans and she was throwing a bit of a tantrum, good thing he had an extra in his pocket.” Kyoko wanted to laugh, but now it was time to be a bit more serious. “It's not an issue Mahiru, I was just wondering if you were free tomarrow? I need you to come with me and take a few pictures of a crime scene.” A bit of noise went off in the background before she could reply, making Kyoko a bit curious as to what the hell was happening. “Oh really? I’d be happy to!” Mahiru said rather enthusiastically, before whispering something along the lines of ‘Get off the fucking fridge’ to someone in the room with her. Kyoko took a minute out of pure amazement at what had just conspired in Mahirus' tiny apartment, “I'm gonna assume that you need the break.” Another loud sound came from the other end of the call, before Kyoko heard a quiet but rather desperate “Yes.”

….

As Kyoko drove past the city lights into the outer woods, she couldn’t help but repeat the case details in her head. Woodsy area, no possible witnesses, an unidentified corpse.

An unidentified corpse.

Why did the murderer go through so much trouble to hide the victims identity? Taking the fingernails is a nasty form of secret keeping but to drain all the blood from a person's body, dead or alive, is a bit extra. It was becoming clear that whoever the killer is clearly doesn’t want this person's name to be spoken. The only question was why and for whose sake. Perhaps this killer of ours has an occupation where they keep many secrets, like a spy, a yakuza, a gang leader…

“Hey, are you okay?” Kyoko was pulled out of her thoughts, turning her head to see Mahiru looking at her with a bit of a confused look. Mahiru chuckled, “I thought you said you’d quit zoning out during senior year?” She said jokingly. Kyoko smiled “I never said that I’d quit, I only said that I’d work on it.” “And how long did that last?”

“12 minutes”

“Well, you did break your record from the 7th grade, you stopped correcting people on their spelling for 10 minutes back then.”

Kyoko remembered that, she said she’d stop correcting people after she got scolded for telling the teacher that she had spelt the word ‘Ambulance’ wrong on the board. That lasted up until an exchange student spelt ambulance like the teacher did. She just couldn’t help herself.

“Dude, you’re doing it again, is this one of those inner narrator things Gundhum talked about?” Mahiru looked as if she’d realized something for a moment. “Oh my god I can’t believe he’s not just a nerd.” Kyoko rolled her eyes. “No I don’t have an inner narrator, all I have is the voice in my head that reads out most of the things I read.” Kyoko explained, not 100% sure that she was joking herself. Mahiru looked back at Kyoko for a moment. “So everyone has one of those? I just thought I was weird.” Kyoko chuckled before turning into their destination. The woods seemed so peaceful, you would’ve never guessed what happened without prior knowledge.  
Stepping out of her car, she took a long look at her surroundings. The large trees and the absolute stillness of the area was almost too peaceful, it kinda made her ears ring. Mahiru hopped out of the passenger seat, stretching as soon as her feet hit the ground. “So, where's this crime scene you're so invested in?” She said while stretching her arms above her head.  
“A bit ahead of us, are you okay to walk a bit?” Kyoko said as Mahiru took out her camera. “Yeah, how far is it?.” “We just have to follow this path until we find what's left of the police tape, or other things that you’d find at a crime scene.” Kyoko replied, already making her way down the beaten path that was laid out for them. “Have you ever talked to the police chief about that? Them just leaving their things behind? It’s starting to wig me out a bit.” Mahiru said, gripping her camera in her hands. Kyoko sighed, “The police of Japan haven’t listened to me nor my family in years. They follow their own rules, and we follow ours.”

The two of them walked through the forest, Kyoko leading the way as Mahiru followed behind her. Mahiru looked around the thick forest, silently debating in her head on whether or not this was a good idea. “Uhm, Kyoko?” She asked, seemingly a tad bit on edge. Kyko hummed in reply. Mahiru tried to catch up with her friend who had begun to pick up the pace since they had gotten closer to their crime scene. “It’s probably nothing, but you mentioned that the body was completely unidentifiable, right?” “Yes, I did, they removed all of the things you’d typically use to identify a body.” Mahiru raised her brow, now standing right next to Kyoko. “Did anyone ever come in and claim the body was someone they knew?” She asked. Kyoko thought for a moment, no one had come in to claim the body. This could point to the victim having no one in their life that would notice them being missing. Alone in life, and just as alone in death. “No, no one ever claimed the body. That could be a clue on its own on the identity of our victim, a bit of a blessing in disguise.”

The two came across the small area of the crime scene. The human figure drawn in white paint laying on the tree was proof enough that they had found it. The victim was found sitting up with their back laying against the tree, nothing more nothing less. “Just take a few pictures of the area, they might come in handy later.” Kyoko said “I’m gonna go look around for anything the cops might have missed.” Mahiru nodded before snapping a picture of the tree the body was found resting up against. Kyoko looked around the surrounding area, eyes darting to look at everything from the tree branches hovering above them to the ground surrounding the bodies outline below them. She walked closer to the tree, trying to make sure there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, that's when she felt something prick her finger. She hissed and grabbed at her index finger, seeing the small but rather deep slash in her finger slowly turn red. “Are you okay, Kyoko?” Mahiru questioned, hearing Kyoko’s little groan after she realized what had happened. “Yeah, I just-” That was when she saw what had pricked her. There was something poking out of the tree. Kyoko used her unharmed hand to try and yank it out, noticing how it didn’t perfectly fit the hole it had seemingly made in the tree. Her eyes were met with the scratched up surface of a long, fake finger nail. Black in color, with a bit of a red tint towards the base. Though scratched and seemingly peeling, Kyoko could make out a rabbit and a deck of cards designed on the nail.  
She heard Mahiru take a few more pictures of something behind her, before walking towards her. “You just what? Is everything alright?” Mahiru questioned, before Kyoko turned to face her. She looked down at what Kyoko was holding, only to notice the blood that had dripped its way down her hand. Mahiru gasped, “Kyoko! Good god, how did you manage to hurt yourself?”  
“I-” Before Kyoko could finish, Mahiru grabbed her index finger, examining it as if she was the detective here. “Did you cut yourself on the tree? You could get a piece of wood stuck in there and it could get infected!” Mahiru scolded her as if she was a child, it kinda made Kyoko understand why Aoi and Akane used to jokingly call her mom in highschool. “I’m okay Mahiru, besides, I think I have an idea of where this killer of mine tends to hang out.” Kyoko said, hinting that she had already found a lead. “Jeeeezzz, already? No wonder you’re the ultimate detective.” Mahiru replied “At least let me drive back, I don't want you losing a finger because you were too reckless.” Kyoko nodded in agreement, if only to get her to stop nagging at her about the rather pathetic looking cut. She’d just have to bandage it when she got back home. “So what’d you find?” Mahiru asked on their way back to the car. Kyoko looked down at the object in her hand. “It appears to be a fingernail.” She replied. Mahiru looked a bit disappointed. “That's it?” She asked “Well, this specific kind of design is exclusive to a group of elite gamblers, and I believe we have an old friend who’s an expert on the gambling scene.” Mahiru seemed a bit shocked, but nodded in reply. They did have an old friend from high school that would know that specific area like the back of her jewelry covered hand.

Specifically because she was a part of it.

….

She tried to steady her breathing, but goddamn it wasn’t working, her anxiety was through the roof. When Kyoko was met with the opportunity to get back with her childhood ‘best friend’, she was almost ecstatic, but she’d never let anyone but the little voice in her head know that. She tried not to think about the many times her and this ‘friend’ of hers would spend countless hours with each other, making most people think that they had some sort of ‘beneficial compromise’ between them, they made her palms about as clammy as Ishimaru’s cooking. Speaking of Ishimaru, one of her memories from her rather close ‘friendship’ with this ‘friend’ involved Ishi actually giving Kyoko food poisoning when he made breakfast for their class. Her ‘friend’ sat behind her throughout her entire sickly state, holding her hair back while she basically spat up her guts.

She waited at the subway, checking the time for the moment her train was supposed to arrive. She hadn’t spoken to her since that night, the night exactly before graduation, a night they had all decided to forget about. She figured that was why she felt so nervous, what if she had changed?

A loud roar brought Kyoko out of her worried monologue. As the subway a few feet in front of her stopped and the doors opened, people flooded in front of her, but one figure was an obvious standout.

Holy shit, she looks almost the exact same.

The woman looked around for a bit before her eyes landed on the other tall, purple haired woman. “Kyoko.” She said under her breath, before making her way to her and engulfing her in a hug. Kyoko stood there for a moment, almost a bit shocked, before wrapping her arms around the ‘old friend’ she had worried so much about. It took the two a few minutes before they separated, but they were never out of eachothers arms. The other woman brought a hand to Kyoko’s cheek, looking closely at the eyebags and dark circles Kyoko had managed to get while they had been separated. “You’ve been overworking yourself again. What must I do until you start taking care of yourself again!” She complained, what was with people wanting to scold her within the past few weeks. “It’s good to see you two, Celestia.”


	2. Lavender and Liquor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted an excuse to put a useless headcannon in here, but here's a chapter that's less about the mystery and more about the characters.

“So, tell me why you decided to contact me after these past couple of years?” Celestia’s tone almost sounded sarcastic, like she knew how Kyoko felt. It took Kyoko a moment before sighing, and grabbing one of the bags Celestia had brought with her. Celestia frowned, realizing that Kyoko was actively avoiding the question. “Let’s go, I’ve got a car outside waiting for us.” Kyoko said, trying desperately to remove the two from the public area they were currently in. “Oh.” Celestia said, “Well did you at least get something a bit more elegant than that little jeep you had in highschool?” Kyoko pretended not to hear the question. They walked in silence for a bit before finally reaching their transportation.

It was, in fact, Kyoko’s old jeep from highschool.

Celestia put her hand over her mouth, trying to silence her own giggling. “Oh my god, you actually still have it.” Celestia cackled through her hand, much to the annoyance of the taller woman next to her. Kyoko almost felt embarrassed, she herself hadn’t realized how old the jeep was at this point. “Shut up, it has history.” Kyoko replied, opening the trunk and tossing one of the bags she was carrying in there. She used to have to drive Mondo and Leon home after some of Ibuki’s parties in highschool, and Sayaka always said that the jeep made Kyoko look like the class mom. She kinda missed those days.

“I’ll say, It’s so ancient.” Celestia said before tossing the bag that she was carrying in the trunk as well. Kyoko slammed the trunk shut, the sheer fact she had to slam it also made the jeep's age rather apparent. With her laughter subdued Celestia opened the passenger's side door before climbing into the seat, she was almost immediately hit with the smell of lavenders. It was a familiar scent, it was the same scent that Kyoko used for basically everything. To be honest, Celestia missed it, it was a comforting smell. “So, is there anything else you wanna mention about the ride?” Kyoko asked before hopping into the car herself. “Just one,” Celestia replied. “How long did it take you to get Yasuhiro’s vomit out of the back seat?” Kyoko was almost in shock for a minute. “You actually remember that?” “How could I forget?” Celestia looked behind her. “I was sitting beside him, and Chihiro was in the passenger's seat where I sit now. Bastard ruined my dress.” Celestia said the last few words as if she was still angry about it, to be fair she probably still was.

Kyoko smiled to herself, she honestly didn’t think she’d remember. Kyoko started the car before sighing. “I need your help.” Kyoko said plainly, but it was obvious that she was letting her nerves rush the words out of her mouth. Celestia looked at Kyoko, almost a bit disappointed. “I think one of your gamblers is a murderer.” Celestia took a moment to process the word that Kyoko had just said. “What? That's absurd, my group has a strict rule about violence.” Kyoko reached into a compartment by the front seat, pulling out a bag containing the broken nail. “I found this at the scene of the crime that I'm currently working on, it’s the design used to identify the gamblers that work within your group if I’m not mistaken.” Celestia grabbed the bag, before examining it’s contents. She felt a bit of sorrow as she realized that this was in fact a nail belonging to her group. “Shit.” Celestia said under her breath. 

“I know that this is a bit much, but I need to know if you’d give me permission to investigate your group.” Celestia gulped, she couldn’t think of a reason one of her gamblers would kill someone. “If it’ll help you with your case, then you have my permission.” Celestia said, still clutching the bag between her hands. Kyoko felt a wave of relief flow over her. As Celestia eventually handed her back the evidence, Kyoko noticed how perfect Celestia’s nails were. She herself wasn't missing one, so that ruled her out as a suspect. Old memories of the many times Celestia would grab ahold of Kyoko’s hand whenever she felt frightened started to pop into her mind. Despite her dark and rather threatening presence, Celestia hated horror movies because they never failed to scare her.

“Kyoko?” Celestia asked, making Kyoko hum in response. “Is that the only reason you wanted to talk to me again?” Those words hit Kyoko like a truck, “Celestia-”

“I didn’t do it just to get back at Byakuya, you know that, right?”

“I wanna believe you.”

“I really did- I mean, I still-”

Celestia sat there, almost in tears as she realized what she had just said. Kyoko cleared her throat and tried to focus on driving, as Celestia quietly looked out at the window in what she could only describe as embarrassment.

….

Kyoko opened the door to her home, letting Celestia in. Celestia was almost a bit floored by how plain it was, nothing but a picture of her and her dad and an old clock decorated the walls. Kyoko had the most basic furniture Celestia had ever seen.

Kyoko sat down the bags that she had been carrying. “You can stay here for the time needed, If you need anything, I’ll be in my office.” And with that, Celestia was left alone. She felt herself fall onto Kyoko’s living room couch, feeling a mixture of shame, guilt, and embarrassment bubble within her chest. It was either that or heartburn and given her circumstances she was gonna go with the more poetic version. She almost felt a little stupid for thinking things would go any differently. Hell what did she expect to happen? Did she think that Kyoko was going to confess her undying love to her and sweep her off her feet? And then they’d have Ishimaru marry them and they’d go on to buy a giant gothic manor, adopt 4 kids all named after famous detectives, 2 dogs, 3 cats, 4 hamsters and a pony?

Okay, yes, that's exactly what she thought was gonna happen.

But now she knew for a fact that wasn’t the reason Kyoko called her, not now, not after what happened before graduation. She knew how Kyoko probably felt, and she was probably lucky that she wanted to see her at all.  
She felt so miserable, and all she could do was lay there, lay there on her old friend's couch. 

The best thing she could do now was try and relax. She hadn’t slept the night prior because she just couldn’t wait until she and Kyoko would finally see each other again, of course she’d never let anyone know this, it’d be a shot that her pride wouldn’t be willing to take. Celestia forced herself off the couch, smoothing out any wrinkles that she might’ve created while laying down.  
‘Where on earth would this woman's bathroom be?’ She thought to herself. She almost didn’t wanna ask, fearing the idea of having to see Kyoko after what had happened on the ride here.

‘It’s okay Celeste, what's the worst thing that could happen?’ She sighed, finally gathering enough courage to knock on the door to the room that Kyoko had disappeared to. “Come in.”

Celestia opened the door, finding Kyoko sitting at a desk with a stack of papers piled on top of it.  
“Kyoko, what on earth are all those papers for?” Celestia said without entirely thinking about it before it escaped her mouth. Kyoko sat up from her desk, grabbing a few of the papers. “These are details from the case. I’m looking over them so that they’ll be fresh in my mind for tomorrow.” Celestia walked into the room, closing the door behind her. She took notice of certain things, for example, the room was almost exactly like the rest of the house, barren and lacking decor. Another thing that caught her eye was the trash bin next to Kyoko’s desk, not specifically the trash bin itself, but the duo of vodka bottles that Kyoko had haphazardly thrown in it.

Kyoko had never really been one to drink anything, she was typically everyone’s ride home. This felt rather out of character, but she hadn’t spoken to Kyoko in almost 2 years. “I just wanted to ask where the bathroom was.” Celestia said, feeling Kyoko’s eyes on her. Kyoko was silent for a moment, before eventually turning back to her work. “Up the stairs first door on your left.”  
“Thank you.” Celestia said, trying her best to leave the conversation, the awkward feeling almost being too much for her.

As she shut the door behind her, Celestia felt that miserable feeling again. God, how long would it be until she’d finally rid herself of these feelings. ‘Just take a shower and go to bed in one of the guest rooms, then everything will be somewhat normal when you wake up.’

Yeah, normal.

Sure.

….

Everything is not normal, not even somewhat.

She was in the middle of a bit of nightmare, of which all of her vampire butlers turned into werewolves, otherwise known as the lesser monster, when she was rather suddenly brought back to reality. She awoke to the sound of something falling and hitting the floor downstairs, followed by someone screaming “SHIT!”

Celestia was quick to get out of bed, peeking out the door and looking around. She was almost a bit nervous, what if someone had broken in? “Kyoko?” she said, a bit too worried to actually yell. She took a deep breath in, before carefully heading down the stairs. It didn’t take long for her to notice that the typical smell of lavenders was gone, and it was replaced by something she didn’t entirely recognise. When she was at the final step of the stairs, she quickly scanned the living room for any sign of life, it was dead for as far as she could see. Another loud noise, similar to first was heard from the kitchen. Celestia jumped off the stairs and swiftly opened the door, and her concerns were confirmed, but not in the way she had originally thought. At Least she finally knew what that smell was.

Kyoko had tried to drunkenly stumble her way out of the kitchen, eventually losing her balance and falling backwards on one of the chairs, twice. “Kyoko! Holy shit are you alright?” Celestia said, falling to her knees to inspect her sloppily drunk friend. Kyoko stared up at her for a few seconds, blinking a few times. “Celeste?” She basically slurred the end of her name, grabbing ahold of Celestia's nightgown and pulling her into a hug. “Woa- Yes, it’s me. Why the hell were you drinking this late at night Kyoko?” Celestia questioned, wrapping her arms around the detective. “I don’t know.” Kyoko said before slowly beginning to cry on her friends shoulder. At this point Celestia was almost at a loss for words. She cooed at Kyoko, trying to get her to calm down, but all she did was pull Celeste closer, and basically sob into her neck. “Kyoko, why are you crying?” Kyoko sniffled. “Because I made you upset, and I don’t actually hate yo-” She tried to finish her sentence but it only came out as a short series of sobs. “Kyoko, I’m okay. I don’t think that you hate me.” Celestia said as she pulled kyoko to face her, cupping her head in her hands. Kyoko sniffled, looking down at the ground. Celestia used her thumb to lightly carress Kyoko’s cheek, maybe if she could get Kyoko to calm down, she could get her to sleep.

“Come on, let me get you upstairs.” Celestia helped Kyoko up, with a bit of trouble considering Kyoko’s legs were basically gelatin. With a bit of support, Celestia guided Kyoko up the stairs and into what was presumably her room. Celestia sat the girl down on her bed, good thing she was on her bed and not the floor because she fell backwards almost as soon as Celestia let her go. Kyoko tried to get herself back up right, but she was only able to fall backwards a few more times before Celestia told her to stop it. Celestia sat down on the bed next to her, a little bit tired herself, apparently carrying another human being whose much taller and stronger than you are up a set of stairs is pretty hard. “Celeste… Kyoko slurred, once again placing her hands on the spare fabric of Celestia’s nightgown. “Yes?” Celestia replied. “Will you stay with me?” Celestia felt her heart quicken a bit, but the feeling of butterflies in her stomach was short lived. Kyoko was drunk, it’d be better to stay with her anyway.

“Alright.” Celestia said, before moving herself under the covers, and eventually making Kyoko do the same. Drunk people really don’t know how to do much for themselves. There was a moment of awkward silence, before Kyoko took Celestia’s hand in hers. “Thank you.” Celestia felt all the blood rush to her face. “It’s not an issue, we’re friends.” She replied, secretly hoping her palms wouldn’t begin to sweat, before finally closing her eyes. There was a peaceful bit of silence, before she heard a few sniffles come from Kyoko. She opened her eyes to see that Kyoko was crying again. “Hun, what are you crying about now?”  
“Because Squidward doesn’t like Spongebob back.”

“Go to sleep, Kyoko.”


	3. Why Hello There Fellow Felon

Kyoko’s hands gripped the edge of the kitchen table, as her insides were basically being squished together. She knew that the gamblers had their own rules on how you’d be let into their meetup’s, but what she didn’t expect was their very uptight dress code rule. This wasn’t some kind of event where you could go in whatever you found in the back of your closet. Celestia had to put together an outfit in one morning, which to her credit, it wasn’t too bad. She had taken one of Kyoko’s old tuxedos and sewn some lace onto her sleeves, and she replaced the tie with one of her own. Kyoko had thought that’d be the end of it, but Celestia had other plans.

“Are you sure this is necessary?” Kyoko said, looking back at Celestia who was in the middle of tying the strings to a corset she had found for Kyoko. Celestia nodded before giving another tug to tighten the death trap around Kyoko’s waist. “But of course. I can’t let you go in there underdressed, and this corset just brings the outfit all together.” Kyoko held her breath, “I’m there to solve a mystery, not walk a runway.” Honestly, this probably wouldn’t bother her so much if she wasn’t in the middle of a raging hangover, the combined feeling of her guts being squeezed into her chest and brain hitting itself with hammer could be considered torture.

Celestia chuckled before giving one last and rather painful tug on the strings of Kyoko’s corset. “There, the last one’s always the worst.” Celestia said. Kyoko turned around to face the woman who just turned her ribs to mush, only to suddenly see her face light up with an emotion that Kyoko had never seen her have. “You look great! You look much better in a tux than any man in my group.” Celestia said, straightening Kyoko’s tie and fixing her collar. Kyoko couldn’t help but smile a bit, it made her happy to see Celestia genuinely enjoy something. She could put up with the contraption for a bit, even if it did hurt to breathe.

“So what's the name of your group of gamblers?” Kyoko choked out, not exactly used to how tight the corset was. Celestia reached into the purse she had thrown over her shoulder, pulling out an invitation. “They’re called The Jack Rabbits, they tend to meet up and gamble the first Friday of every month. Normally you’d have to be a member to come to one of these events, but since I can bring a plus one... ” Celestia replied, before handing Kyoko the envelope. “Is there anything else I should know?” Kyoko asked, taking the invitation from Celestia. Celestia pondered for a bit, “Stay close to me, I don’t entirely trust some of them.” “I can take care of myself, you know?”

“Just listen to me.”

Technically, she wasn’t lying. Celestia had only interacted with these people in a certain setting. You don’t get into a lot of interesting conversations when you're gambling thousands of dollars away, and insults don’t really count as talking. But Celestia was also using this as an excuse to spend the entire night with Kyoko, and it was hard to blame her. She had always wondered what Kyoko would look like in a suit, needless to say she’s not disappointed.

Kyoko sighed, grabbing her phone off her kitchen counters. “Well, you said this place opened at 9pm?” Kyoko asked, making Celestia nod in response. Kyoko looked down at her phone, clicking in on for a moment to check the time. “It’s 8:30, if we leave now we’ll be there a bit before then.” She said, before placing her phone in one of the pockets of her jeans.  
Celestia hummed in reply, as she took one of one of the many lacey purses she always managed to have an endless amount of. “Let’s go.”

….

Y’know, sometimes Kyoko really worried about Celestia.

Especially when she hung out in places like this.

Aside from the victorian aesthetic of things like the furniture, paintings, lights, and decor, this place looked fucking horrifying. Every once and a while you’d come across a door that would lead to some kind of dark room that should probably have an old maid that’d tell you to ‘not go into under any circumstances’, or you’d meet an older guy who just screams ‘hey kid, want some candy?’

Another thing that bugged her was the odd collection of chains that were just kinda there.  
They weren’t doing anything, they were just scattered randomly around the place.

Celestia and Kyoko had taken their place sitting on one of the couches, taking some of the wine given out to them by a few maids. People would casually give her stares, it’s not everyday you see the child of a respected detective hanging out in a place like this. “So what’s the plan?” Celestia asked. “Simple, we keep an eye out for anyone missing a nail. Since this is a mandatory event, our suspect is bound to show up.” “What if they had their nails redone within the time period after the murder?” Kyoko chuckled, “That would be impossible, since these nails are specific to this group they’re all made by the same person. She’s relatively easy to contact when you’re working with the law. She let me know that no one has requested any new nails to be made.” Celestia smiled, sipping from her wine. “You’re more prepared for this than I thought.”

Kyoko nodded, sipping from her own wine as well. “But I gotta ask, why is this place built like a bdsm dungeon?”

“The better question is, why do you know what that looks like?”

“Celeste, I’m a 21 year old depressed alcoholic with a shit relationship with their father, what else am I supposed to do with my freetime?”

A few minutes would pass, and every so often, someone would walk through the doors of the club. Kyoko and Celestia made sure to look at everyone's hands as they came in. So far, no one was missing a nail, and everyone seemed to walk in with a shocked look once they saw who the Ultimate Gambler was seated by. “Kyoko?” Celestia asked, turning her head to the woman beside her. “Why did you wish to see me again?” Kyoko sighed, “I needed your help, I’ve already answered this question.” Kyoko knew she was a liar. She desperately wanted to see Celestia again. She wanted to know if they could be as close as they once were, but she always knew, deep down in that little heart of hers, that it was impossible. “Is that...really the only reason?” Kyoko couldn’t answer. God, she felt so stupid. There was silence between the two of them. Kyoko sat her wine down on the table in front of her, before getting up out of her seat. “Where’s the restroom?” “The back of the hallway on the right.” Celestia answered, sipping some of her own wine. Kyoko looked back at Celestia, before turning and heading down the hallway.

This was the second time in a row that Celestia had managed to feel alone, she wanted so badly to just be with Kyoko, in a way that didn’t require a phone call at 3am. She wanted Kyoko to want her back. She couldn’t even tell if she was being obsessive anymore.

“Ah! Miss Ludenberg!” A voice with a rather thick accent called her name from behind the couch. The pudgy little man made his way to her side by the time she had realized who the voice belonged to. “Good evening, Mr. Hanamura. I didn’t know you frequinted here.” Teruteru shook his head, before smiling at her, “No, I was hired to make the horderves for this little club of yours.” He said, before presenting her a plate filled with finger sandwiches. “Here, try one.” Celestia looked at the food presented to her, normally in a position with a man rivaling someone like Hifumi, she’d slam the plate into his face and tell him to start oinking like a pig, but she was ina space where such an action would be frowned upon, or just considered inappropriate. “I must thank you, but I’m quite full. You see, I’ve already eaten at Kyo-” “But you must try some! Come now, are you really gonna hurt my heart with your denial?” He pushed the dish closer to her face, making Celestia flinch. “No, I’d rather not.” She said, a bit more firm this time.

“But Miss-”

“Hey, sweetheart, is there something wrong?”

Celestia felt a hand on her shoulder, grip as firm as humanly possible. She turned her head around to see Kyoko looming over her. Teruteru looked at Kyoko as if he’d just seen the face of god. “W-well...I uh-” “Answer me, little man.” Celestia didn’t know if it was the weirdly protective way that Kyoko was acting that made her turn red, or if it was the fact that she had just called her sweetheart in the most intimidating way she’d ever heard. “I w-was just trying to give her some of my fresh horderves.” Teruteru replied after a bit of hesitation. Kyoko sat down on the couch, grabbing ahold of Celestia’s hand. “Well, do you want any of the little man's food?” She asked Celestia, in a more caring tone compared to the one she was using towards Teruteru. “N-no, I don’t.” She answered, basically beat read at this point. Kyoko looked back at Teruteru, “You heard her, now be on your way, you have a job to do after all.” She said, ushering him off.

Teruteru left with a weird mixture of a pout and a scream, dropping the plate of food as he ran.  
Celestia turned to look at Kyoko, still red in the face. “Thank you.” Kyoko smiled, before grabbing her wine off the table. “It’s no problem, he should’ve listened to you the first time you said no.” Kyoko said, before taking a painfully long sip of her wine. Celestia looked down, noticing that Kyoko was still holding onto her hand. “You could let go, if you don't wanna hold my hand.” “Maybe I wanna hold your hand.” Goddamn you, Kyoko.

“Since you asked about my club, I get to ask you something now.”

“Yeah?”

“How did you manage to use the bathroom so quickly?” Celestia asked. Kyoko seemed to hesitate before placing her head in her free hand. “You promise not to laugh?” Celestia nodded.

“I don’t know how I’m supposed to piss in this corset.”

….

It had been about two hours. Two hours of absolutely nothing. Everyone had their nails, no one was missing any. They were fucked. “Are you sure that's everyone?” Kyoko questioned. Celestia took a look around for a moment, before turning back to face her friend. “In total there are 22 members, all of which have all of their nails. The only people who don’t have any nails are the plus ones.” This was impossible.

The night was coming to an end, and people were already making their way out the door. At this point things felt hopeless. “Do you want to stay to see if we can-”

“No, that’d just be a waste of good time. I came here in search of one thing and I didn’t find it, so I’ll just have to look for another.” Kyoko replied, almost stumbling over her words but managing to save face for the time being. Celestia swallowed, feeling a strange sense of guilt wash over her body, mainly because she had dragged Kyoko to a shitty little meetup in such a painful outfit for no reason. “Alright, what will we do now.” Kyoko put her head in her hands, she was so sure that this would lead them to their killer and possibly their victim, but they were lost.

Celestia got up from her seat on the couch, having to help Kyoko up as the corset was becoming rather painful. “I’m terribly sorry about this.” “Don’t apologize, I did feel pretty banging for a little while and that’s been the most confident I’ve been in a while.” Celestia chuckled at her friend's remark, before linking arms with her and walking out of the doors to the underground meetup. As the door clanged shut behind them, they slowly realized how far Kyoko’s jeep was parked from their current location. Celestia groaned, ”I don’t understand why you couldn’t have parked closer to the club.” She complained, managing her way to the parking lot. “All the spots closer to the club were taken.”

“So? I thought being a woman of the law meant that you were immune to stuff like assault charges.”

As they came upon the car, Kyoko managed to reach into her pocket and pull her keys, but not without wincing from the pain of moving her upper body too much. The two settled into her seats, Kyoko checked each mirror, but it wasn’t until she got to her rear view mirror that she noticed something was off. She had always kept blankets in the seat behind her, she had ever since Chihiro had begun passing out in the back of her car whenever she and them would go somewhere together, she hated leaving her to freeze when Kyoko had her air conditioner set to ‘frosty’s nutsack’. It wasn’t the blankets that bothered her, it was more of the position that they were in. They had been tossed around in the seat, instead of neatly placed on the floor.

“Celestia, did you touch my blankets?”

“No, why-”

“Herlock? Is that you?”

A sharp scream was heard from Celestia as a weirdly styled set of hair popped up from the very back, a style that was quickly recognized as Kyoko took a closer look. “Mondo!” Kyoko said, almost in shock. The man she was referring to stumbled his way into the seat behind her, all while Celestia was holding her hand to her heart in an attempt to calm herself. “Man, I haven’t seen you two in forever!” Mondo said, looking rather excited to be reunited with his former classmates. Kyoko sighed, “What the hell are you doing in my car?” Mondo's smile fell, looking a bit embarrassed. “Would you believe me if I said that I just woke up here?” He said, obviously not confident in his own excuse. Celestia bopped him on the head, making him flinch in response. “You bumbling buffoon! What made you think it was a good idea to sneak into a woman's car in the middle of the night!?! Don’t you know that’s how idiots like you lose their chances of having offspring?!” Celestia scolded. “Alright! Alright! I was trying to outrun the cops, the lock to Kyoko’s backseat has been broken for years! It’s her own damn fault for not having it fixed!

“It hasn’t been fixed yet?!”

“I’ve been meaning to! I just forget....sometimes.”

Kyoko facepalmed her head against the steering wheel, mind already racing with multiple things at once. She needed a drink, a big one. “Okay, Mondo.” Kyoko said, “I’m guessing you need a ride home?” Mondo could only nod in reply, Celestias glare feeling like it was burning away at his skin. As Kyoko started the car, she tried to think of a reason why no one was missing a nail. All the pieces seemed to be in all the right places, but they just weren’t fitting together.

The drive was silent for a while, Celestia was obviously still upset at Mondo for scaring her like that, and Mondo was still upset at Celestia for threatening to cut his balls off. “Okay,can I ask a question?” The question was met with the sharp glare of Celestia returning. “Haven’t you said enough?” Celestia said, a little bit more forceful than she intended. Mondo rolled his eyes before murmuring something under his breath that neither Celestia or Kyoko could make out. “Why is Kyoko hanging out on this side of town, and why is she wearing that…” “Corset.” “Yeah, that.”  
Celestia put her head in her hands, before answering sarcastically, “We were just investigating, you know, her job?” Mondo was glaring at her this time. “Jesus, I just asked a question.” He said, before turning away from her and looking at the road ahead of them. “I know, that's all you ever do.” Celestia whispered under her breath, but both of the people in the car with her heard it. Mondo returned his gaze to her. “What did you just say?” He was almost a little shocked. “I said,” Celestia started, “All you’ve ever done is ask people for things, you’ve never done anything for yourself.” Oh no. Kyoko’s head darted in Celestia’s direction, Where she saw the other woman's face go from confident and angry to scared and upset after she had realized what she just said. Celestia said those words with such disdain you’d think they were racial slurs. This was the first time in years that Kyoko had ever seen Mondo look so hurt. “Well atleast I didn’t sleep with my classmate's girlfriend!” 

Kyoko slammed her hands on the steering wheel, and turned the car so that they were pulled into a nearby restaurant's parking lot. The car was turned so abruptly and quickly that the sound the jeep made was probably heard from inside the restaurant, and it alerted the two people in the car with Kyoko that they had seriously screwed up.

“You two had better knock it off. I’ve already knocked on the pasts doorstep within the past two days, I’m not gonna wait to see if he’ll answer.” Kyoko was desperately trying to keep her voice at a calm level, but she was so tired and miserable that her head was literally this close to popping off, and these two definitely weren’t helping. She knew that the two of them were pissed at each other, and to an extent, they had a right to be, everyone from class 78 did but not in her car. “You two are gonna put this shit behind you until I’m in my pajamas and I’ve had a couple of shots, alright?” Mondo and Celestia sat there in silence, a mixture of guilt and embarrassment bubbling within them. “Alright.” Mondo replied, rubbing the back of his neck. Celestia was absolutely red in the face, and Kyoko’s billion dollar stare was eating away at her. She eventually hung her head in defeat, realizing that her fight with Mondo wasn’t worth continuing right now. “Fine.” Celestia choked out. 

“Good.” Kyoko sighed, before setting her jeep back on its course to Mondo’s apartment. Mondo had been scolded by Kyoko before, but that was for things like drinking too much at a party, or going too quickly while driving, ya know stuff that would’ve probably gotten him killed. He would’ve never thought that he would see her so wound up over a fight, but then he remembered what he and Celeste were arguing over. Yeah, he wouldn’t be mad if Kyoko slapped him around for what he said.

Mondo swallowed. “I’m sorry about that Celestia.” Celestia didn’t look at him, only keeping her eyes on the road. It was quiet for a good minute, before Celestia sighed. “No, I shouldn't have brought up the past like that.” Celetsia replied. “I’m sorry.” Kyoko smiled to herself, fucking finally, peace again.

“So…” Mondo said, “You guys never told me what you were investigating.” Kyoko thought to herself for a moment, this can’t possibly be a good idea, she already dragged one old friend into an actual fucking crime, why the hell would she do that twice? ‘Ah fuck it, Dad never told me what morals were anyway.’ She handed mondo the little bag containing the fake fingernail. “This was found at a crime scene I’m working on. It's identical to the kind made for gamblers like Celestia, but we didn’t find anyone there with a missing nail.” Mondo examined the nail, the little gears in his brain turning and he looked at the detailed design. “So what does that mean?”

“It means that I might lose my job if I don’t come up with a new lead.”

How could no one be missing a nail? It’s an exact match to the others seen at the club. She thought that she had everything figured out, everything she needed. ‘Oh god, what if dad was right? What if this is too much for me? What if I fail and I never get to do another case again? What if I’m the laughing stock of my craft? I mean, it looks so similar, it has to belong to a gambler its an exact cop-’

Copy.

Kyoko took the bag back from Mondo, him looking a bit disappointed at losing his new distraction. Kyoko took Celestia's hand for the second time that night, and placed both her nails, and the nail found at the crime scene close together. “Kyoko! Watch the road!” Celestia panicked as Kyoko’s hands suddenly left the wheel. Mondo scrambled his way over Kyoko, his hands taking her place. Kyoko examined the nails close together. They were perfect, almost a little too perfect.

Kyoko knew what she was dealing with now.

The nail had to be a copy of some kind, But she was gonna need some help finding her copycat.

And She knew exactly what little genius she was gonna need to help her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so this is a bit longer, BUT I really wanted to include Mondo because he's a sweetheart and he deserves it. This case is probably gonna drag out a bit longer than I'd like but it's just the first case so I'm being a little more relaxed with how long this will take.


End file.
